Our society is doomed...

6/29/2012 4:21 PM EDT

When I'm giving a lecture, I usually mention that half of the safety systems engineers include in their products are to warn us when a drongo user turns the other systems off :-)

6/29/2012 4:26 PM EDT

That would come in handy (pun intended) if you were at the opera and you wanted to applaud while still having a hand free to pick your nose...

6/29/2012 8:38 PM EDT

And from some of the videos I've seen of Walmart shoppers, some of them probably have 6 fingers on each hand...so they'd get totally confused....

6/30/2012 1:16 AM EDT

Maybe it would be better if they showed 2 hands and a foot! :-)

6/30/2012 10:27 AM EDT

LOL

7/3/2012 5:37 PM EDT

On similar thought, may be they should have used 2 hands and one foot to express the intended concept. That is the target audience is a 2nd grade level education and this individual needs the aid of all it's limb digits. ;-)

6/30/2012 9:40 AM EDT

After my experience at Best Buy yesterday trying to buy an Apple TV and HDMI cable, I think the sign is not for shoppers, but for the sales assistants!

6/30/2012 10:26 AM EDT

You can't just leave us hanging like this ... tell us more!!!

6/30/2012 2:14 PM EDT

In the TV section, there were 2 HDMI cables one for $40 and one for $90 differing in data rates and length. Holding the Apple TV module I found a sales guy and mentioned that the Apple store web site had a cable for $20. I asked if there were any other cables. I was directed to the games section. The sales guy there at least knew about bits/sec and they had had one for $30, but with no data rate specified. The sales guy sent me back to TVs. The Apple TV box has no mention of data rate. Back at TVs I manage to find a guy and ask him what was the data rate needed for the HDMI cable connected to the Apple TV. I had to translate with "gigbits per second". He replied "I have no idea, but I reccomend the $90 one". Next I found the supposed expert- also had no idea.

I went home and ordered directly from Apple- same module price, $20 cable and free shipping. (All prices, locations etc are Canadian which are a bit more than US)

6/30/2012 7:39 PM EDT

In Australia retailers are whinging like stuck pigs about losing business to the internet. Some of them have a legitimate point, but when they shoot themselves in the foot like this, is it any wonder? If you'd got the right advice you'd probably have bought the cable at the store for a higher price, right?

7/3/2012 1:24 PM EDT

One of the many sad things in this commentary is that the data rate specs printed on the cable packaging likely had little or no relationship to the actual capabilities of the cable.

When I needed a couple of HDMI cables, I picked the cheapest one Best Buy had - $20.00 here in Oregon, USA. The only thing I recall the box saying in terms of specs was "Ethernet capable", which I didn't need. Any signal degradation issues this cable might have are far more subtle than my eyes or ears can detect.

6/30/2012 10:28 AM EDT

Ooooh -- very sharp of you Brian

7/5/2012 8:51 AM EDT

I don't know of any Best Buy stores with separate lines like those in the pics (those near me have one line feeding multiple registers) but perhaps they exist. I also don't remember seeing balloons for sale in any Best Buy, but I suppose that's possible as well.

My guess is the Best Buy logo shown is part of a bigger sign promoting the sale of various third-party gift cards within the store. Grocery stores near me sell various gift cards for places like Best Buy.

7/1/2012 5:17 PM EDT

"Cables can be such a rip-off "
Like the time the sales guy at Best Buy tried to sell me the expensive fibre-optic cable because there was less interference than the cheap one.

7/2/2012 8:40 AM EDT

Did you buy it? (grin)

7/2/2012 10:15 AM EDT

More remarkable is the fact that I keep going back, expecting a different result! Didn't Einstein say that was the definition of insanity?

7/2/2012 10:38 AM EDT

I didn't realize that Einstein shopped at Best Buy!

7/3/2012 10:59 AM EDT

Einstein is still trying to work out if he buys fast enough, then does the item count go down...

7/3/2012 5:49 PM EDT

Did they try to sell Einstein the good fiber optic cable on the grounds that light was faster on that one than on the cheap one?

7/3/2012 12:41 PM EDT

I once got into an argument with a journalist for a HiFi magazine, who was convinced there was a difference between "HiFi quality" spdif optical fibres and "normal" spdif optical fibres. With great difficulty, I had to diplomatically concede that there may be some differences, as we wanted him to write a nice review of our high-end HiFi amplifiers!

7/3/2012 5:52 PM EDT

What to say to audio engineers (sic) that prefer their copper cables and plugs and audio connectors to get treated with criogenic baths, to "reduce stress at atomic level", so the audio will be transmitted with less noise?

7/5/2012 2:55 PM EDT

I'd say "Would you like to buy a really nice historic bridge?" :-)

7/3/2012 12:47 PM EDT

One thing to remember is that shops make very little money on things like TVs, while "extras" like cables and "extended warranties" are almost all profit. You can view this in two ways - one is that buying cables in real-world shops will always be a rip-off compared to cheap on-line shops. But the other way to think is that if people don't buy such things, pretty soon there won't be any real-world shops to buy from. After all, if they are not making money then they will close down - and if they /are/ making money, it's because customers are paying more than the absolute minimum.

It's worth thinking about.

7/3/2012 1:07 PM EDT

David

I take your point, but for me the isssue is value for money- If I don't get decent service, I might as well opt for no service.

Also I got a better price for a cable at Apple- hardly a discount retailer! (and I am sure it is compatible).

7/5/2012 8:26 AM EDT

The $20 cable included couriering it from China in 3 days!

7/6/2012 10:51 AM EDT

I agree about service. I think it's worth paying a bit extra to help save local shops - but only those that are worth saving!

7/5/2012 8:15 AM EDT

Or how about the this checker: "I'm sorry sir, two 6-packs, a hotdog 10-pack and an 8-pack of buns is 30 items."

7/6/2012 10:55 AM EDT

My father was once buying beer in an off-license, and saw a sign saying 10% for crates of 12 bottles. So he bought two crates. The cashier counted out loud "10% off for this crate, 10% off for that crate - that's 20% off in total"!

I remember once having to help a cashier calculate the price for 50% off a £10 item.

7/5/2012 9:54 AM EDT

Maybe the student assumed the 10 was a binary count, allowing him up to 16 items.

7/5/2012 8:14 PM EDT

Binary? you mean Hexadecimal??

There are 10 kinds of people in the world....those who know Binary and those who don't..... ;-)

7/6/2012 9:40 AM EDT

My mother-in-law bought this for me on a T-Shirt...


...my wife didn't understand what it meant (sob sob)

7/5/2012 2:54 PM EDT

LOL

7/5/2012 8:11 AM EDT

What would happen if stores adopted a policy of charging an additional 1% for each item over the limit?

7/5/2012 7:56 PM EDT

Ooh, I like that. The issue is probably redundant now, at least in Australia. All of the stores that had 'x items or less' checkouts are converting them over to self-serve ones (which is probably another topic for another day, like when I saw them for the first time in Walmart and had to try it, only to accidentally double-scan an item and not be able to reverse it...the Australian ones seem to be a Mark II version where once scanned the system demands to feel the weight of the item on the 'Out' shelf before the next item can be scanned.)

7/5/2012 8:17 PM EDT

Had the same problems in Woolies, Steve. Ended up swearing at the display and taking my items to the human checkout. I now refuse to use the self-serve ones on principle.

7/5/2012 12:06 PM EDT

Hey! My distant ancestors were monkeys :-)

7/5/2012 8:06 PM EDT

Ah! So Mas, that's where you curiosity comes from

Beware of coconuts that rattle....

7/6/2012 9:42 AM EDT

"Beware of coconuts that rattle...."

Also beware of men who say, "is that a coconut in your pocket, or are you just pleased to see me"

7/5/2012 8:07 PM EDT

Mas? Anyone know where I can get a self-correcting keyboard?

7/6/2012 9:42 AM EDT

Sur, jst ruond teh cuornre

7/6/2012 9:43 AM EDT

I haev oen mysefl